


Cryptically and Heavenly

by Arhain_Aku



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alcohol, But not always, F/F, F/M, Gladion's Silvally Is Such An Asshole, I Definitely Do What I Want, M/M, No Plot, Recreational Drug Use, Sci-Fi Approach, Teeth-Rotting Fluff Sometimes, Those Shippings Are Mainstream I Know, Too Bad She Doesn't Appear In It, Use of Lyra's "Manga" Name Soul, Who Said I Was Original, atmosphere, ethereal, weird stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:00:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23213668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arhain_Aku/pseuds/Arhain_Aku
Summary: Plotless one-shots in which absolutely nothing important happens, just scenes I had in my mind and omg I haven't exploited this fandom since fucking 2014, I'm getting old.I - Gladion has Selene as his religion for he has no lifeII - Soul helps White and N to find Black and she's such a serious elderIII - Clair and Lance are teasing Soul and Silver and it ends up with an epic fight in the Dragon's DenIV - The prospect to solve Silver's and N's family issues in Alola never felt that thrilling and Gold is god-damned down for itV - ??? (If I write all the previous ones, I'll consider this as a miracle)
Relationships: Gladio | Gladion/Mizuki | Selene, Kotone | Lyra/Silver, N | Natural Harmonia Gropius/White, Others 2 Come But Idk Yet
Kudos: 2





	Cryptically and Heavenly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hullo there. I deliberately took advantage of the fact that you can modify your character in USUM and Cie. I'm sorry I didn't stage Lillie really idk why I didn't. STILL, be careful, that amount of fluff (the right concept is emo fluff to be more clear l o l) might give you or worsen your diabetes. And I ain't sorry for that. And ain't sorry for those weird aesthetics of mine, let's say it's just bc I'm a Björk and Grimes fan. Moreover, I'm French and still learning English so please forgive that disgusting lack of vocabulary and those unnatural constructions, I do my best I swear lmao that level of cringe  
> Anyway, thank you for reading this and enjoy!

And oh it was such a boring party, what on earth was he actually doing at this party he never wanted to come to? Hau was terrible, it was his entire fault. He had brought him here and ‘C’mon, mate, that sunset’s terrific and the day’s hot, there ought to be a festival or something on the beach! Let’s get your lazy emo arse out of this ridiculous motel at once’. Despite the fact that years had passed, the guy was still as dynamic and energetic as a god-damned Joltik and things were not to change anyway. The very embodiment of explosively warm joy and endless determination. As far as he was concerned, Gladion was just a bit more mature, maybe taller but still the same. Taciturn, dark and edgy as fuck. For Gladion belonged to the lunar race. And then there was Elio, well, Elio was Elio, a glittering hero, the glorious undefeated Champion of fucking Alola, all charming and lovely for sure, and damn badass too – otherwise he would not fit, nobody ever seen a cute Champion and no, Iris was not that cute, and that Haxorus helped a lot. 

Elio was brilliant, bright and perfect, Gladion was always wondering why he had befriended such a man. And Hau too, seriously, this guy had this special ability to get on his nerves and -

So here they were, three boys drinking way too sweet cocktails, admiring the setting sun on a crowded beach, smoking cigarettes with cringe-making Reggaeton music playing from the bar and if it was meant to put the tourists in a kind of local mood, well, it did not work for the actual locals. But maybe it was just a question of taste, Hau seemed to have a whale of a time and Elio looked like he shared that feeling, loudly laughing his heart out. Gladion took another sip of his sweeter than sweet drink, and rolled his eyes as his Silvally was watching him with playful eyes, the vivid coloured lights from the garlands reflecting in its black pupils. 

“What, no, I’m not to join them and shake my arse before the entire world just because you want me to socialise and have fun.”

Silvally was not satisfied with this pitiful and pathetic answer and looked at its master as to say “What are you hoping for, like, right now, she is not to come, she’s lost somewhere in ultra space and we all know that she is a workaholic and that she is blinkered as heck, so no, she won’t come back down for such low leisures, it’d be a waste of time.”

Fucking Selene. Her leaving and saying goodbye with the most professional and cold tone in the world to remain composed really hurt his poor fragile heart of glass. Selene, Selene, Selene, heavenly body, celestial figure, unreachable and untouchable, far far away riding that alien god of the sun and that alien goddess of the moon or whatever, exploring the unknown and the void to provide crucial information about the origin of the world, of matter, of life, metaphysical matters. Some say, from the right moment you’re given a Pokedex, you would be promised a great future and things are going to get bigger and bigger, more dangerous, and all of a sudden you’re a national hero and there would be Clay who would invite you to his PWT and things are going to get real. Congratulations, you’re an adult and a superstar and that is obviously a big deal.

And in the middle of this mess, there was Gladion, Mr. President of the Aether Foundation and why oh why were things going that way. Adulthood, the concrete world. Silvally craving for the thrill of a great old fight and whining in the middle of Gladion’s paperwork, are you kidding me, mate, this is shitty. Yet, this life seemed to agree with Hau and Elio, not that they seemed much concerned about all of this tiring mess. Cheer up, tomorrow is another day, carpe diem. He took another sip of this drink, seriously, pure tequila would taste better, no, he did not have a sweet-tooth. 

Who was Selene anyway. 

An idea, ethereal perfection, the only fact that Gladion hardly met her twice a month reinforced this impression. The feeling that Selene came from and was in another world far away from here, from Mele-Mele, from whole fucking Alola. And yet, this image was stuck in his head, the small silhouette of that girl who used to be cheerful and kind of innocent, his exact contrary now converted into someone else, something more alien somehow, with the very same features: sun-kissed skin, tonic body, outstanding energy, beaming like a thousand suns in some remote galaxy. But she was not the same any more, something had drastically changed.

Teasing and mocking little Selene whose awful habit was to knock his whole team for fun and “Gladion, you know nothing about Pokemon fights, things don’t work that way, you’re in the wrong path”, with her serious chestnut eyes glued in his after the battle is done and a concerned tone. She had saved him like that, put him back on the right track. Put herself in danger for that. He could remember her in the hall of the Shady House, standing alone before a group of frightened Team Skull grunts, defying the storm and the hazardous structure of the mansion that could fall at every moment. Her majestic Decidueye had them terror-stricken and she had them all bow down before her powerful aura. She was beautiful and almighty.

He had seen in her eyes the epiphany, he had witnessed the very moment when she had understood everything, perceived everything, and he had been seized by the unavoidable need to worship this power of empathy she had. This was when she became his obsession, even his religion, his vital quest. He never felt so desperate for something. Realising that Gladion had been hanging around in this horrible place filled with vice and infinite human stupidity at such a young age had her shivering and trembling all over, and that was how the link, the chain had been created between the two of them. And still, this string kept stretching and stretching, infinitely stretching as she was exploring farther and farther away, where there was no oxygen to breathe nor light to drip all over her pretty face.

But it was just an idea, he had gathered his recollections and perceptions of Selene and had created this idea. An idea that gave him that strange sensation in the stomach and oh Arceus he could not blame himself enough for being cheesy like that.

Once, she came back and visited him at the Aether Foundation at four in the morning. She looked as if someone had took her soul out of her body and thrown it somewhere in the distance, just to wait for it to search for its body like two magnets attracting each other, slowly and painfully. Gladion was in his office, struggling with insomnia and vainly trying to work to kill the time, when he suddenly heard a strange powerful dull noise coming from the reserve. He left his office, alerted, to see what was going on, his whole team out of their Poke Balls, menacing, weary, ready to start a fight. You could never know, maybe it was another Ultra Beast which managed to open a portal and sneaked its way to the reserve and then it would have been awful.

Just to discover Selene carelessly sitting on the floor as if she had just fallen here like some creature from a remote galaxy would have, staring absently at the moon through the windowpanes of the roof of the reserve, with her empty pupils mirroring the pale moonlight. Gladion did not know what to say nor what to do. She seemed so lost and pale, even like a ghostly figure with the new whiteness of her skin being brought out thanks to her messy black hair. Gladion dared one hesitant step towards her, she laid her spectral chestnut eyes on him. These eyes that were shining yet incapable of expressing something.

“Selene? What is it?”

Few seconds passed.

“I almost died today”, she said matter-of-factly with a voice that sounded like an echo in the distance.

Gladion sighed. He had nothing to answer and yet he felt concerned, at such point he could not sleep sometimes. He could not sleep when she was leaving and when she had not reached the Earth for a while that somehow felt like eternity. He took off his black sweater and give it to her – he had to help her to slip it on, she seemed so fragile and powerless at the moment. She did not thank him for this attention and focused on the windowpanes of the roof again. The silent yet obvious confusion of her thoughts reinforced Gladio’s concern. He would not ask her why she almost died today because he could imagine that she had found herself in another dimension where she should have never entered and had encountered a terrifying creature. A creature that was not terrifying enough to make her blood curdle, for he knew that she could not help but engage that unknown enemy. She had to fight to know, but the one to be really destroyed in the end was her and her only.

And maybe a little bit of himself too.

He did not know if he was allowed to do so but he gently rubbed her back, trying to give her a comfort she might have been searching for, instinctively. She was not here by chance but on purpose, even if she did not realise that. Her state could not allow her to realise that. 

“How far this time?”, he asked with a firm tone. 

To see her like that pissed him off, really. She did not deserve to sacrifice herself for the sake of knowledge. At first, when she was leaving for her first explorations, he could only feel impressed, admiring her strength and braveness. But this feeling changed when he started to notice the degradations it caused on her behaviour, even on her health. When she started to faint because she came back weaker than ever and had to sleep for twenty-four hours straight, the alarming fault of her inner ear causing severe nauseas and loss of balance.

“I don’t know.”

To hear her voice so low and so weak did not felt like Selene. It was not Selene. It was not Selene any more. 

“Fine. I’m too tired to argue with you, and I don’t even know if you’d understand something in your condition. Seriously, look at you.”

Why was he acting passive-aggressive like that. It did not fit the situation.

Selene’s body began to tremble all over. She embraced her legs and let her chin rest on her knees. She was hardly wearing something, as always. She had lost weight again, Gladion spotted. He rolled his eyes and helped her to get up, then admitted to himself that he had to carry her to his study in order to lay her on that bed settee he had for the hard weeks. And thus, he would watch her sleep while working all night long because he could not wake her up and tell her to go home because she could not. It was not really a burden he had to carry on his shoulders but he never asked himself why she was coming here, or how she was finding human warmth in his cold manners. He was certainly much more warm and welcoming than a cold and dimly lighted dimension where electric Ultra Beast with a curious conscience were wandering, doing Arceus knew what. Still, he was not Hau nor Elio. 

Somehow, he liked to think that this latent warmth and vague but genuinely caring personality of his was what Selene searched for. Because it was not obvious, it did not explode to your face like it did with Hau for instance. It was hidden and veiled, and it was easier to handle after long hours in dark and deep ultra space. 

And that scene kept repeating for months, and months became a year then two, then -

Hau just bumped into him on purpose, panting, then he sat next to him and reached for his own drink to knock it back. Elio followed, panting as well after that intense crazy dancing session, still laughing. 

“You’re depressing, y’know that? What are you waiting for, enjoy please, for fuck’s sake!”, Hau said, dramatically, ordering another drink and Elio laughed his heart out.

“Never knew you were that soppy, Gladion, all soppy and mushy, waiting for his warrior princess to come back from the front!”, added Elio, teasing him.

Gladion raised an eyebrow while Silvally just growled in response, as if to say that he had resigned trying to make his master think of something else for once. 

“I know, we have already talked about it. We have to stop to be concerned all the time because we have to live too. But it’s been fucking two months without news now. That theorisation process about the apparition of the legendaries in regions they are not supposed to appear in, related to the portals and ultra space is god-damned dangerous. She’s on the front line and it’s destroying her and we witnessed it.”

“And yet she’s still going out there, because she is obsessed and yes, we might lose her”, said Elio, more serious now.

“Holy shit!”, Hau shouted, interrupting the conversation that he was not really listening to, too much absorbed by his new drink and the cuteness of his Alolan Raichu. He had suddenly rose up like a Sentret, taken aback.

Elio and Gladion started with surprise and followed Hau’s gaze to see -

Hau smacked Elio’s side who groused without much conviction, and said:  
“Oh my fucking Mew, we’re not having a terrible and doubtful hallucination, right? You ain’t dreaming Elio, huh?”

“That’s you’re excuse for such violence?”

“Okay no that’s not a dream, there is literally Ilima talking to her and it is probably her first discussion with a normal human being since two fucking months and it’s a pity, I think I’m gonna cry cos we’re her friends and that – wait Gladion, what the fuck?!”

“It’s creepy, innit? I mean, we were just talking about that theory and then she just appears, poof, like that”, said Elio and he seemed kind of dazed.

Gladion did not take the time to think about the consequences of his action because Selene was their friend and he knew that he had a particular place in her heart, so he did not understand why Hau was restraining himself to jump in her arms as he would usually do. Perhaps because he was not sure about her current condition, if she was too weak to handle such a friendly but brutal invasion. But damn, Selene was here and it had been two months and she was beautiful and she seemed alright as she just beamed to Ilima. He just wanted to ask her if she was fine, to check her as he did when she found herself winded up in the Aether Foundation – to ask her if she was real and not another vain dream of his tremendously perturbed mind.

Because he needed to know, he had to touch her, even if that only meant brushing her arm with his hand to prove to himself that she was not an hallucination, an illusion or just the remnant image of his troubled memories by the constant feeling of knowing her in danger in some remote place, light years far away from here. Because that feminine silhouette resembled Selene, Selene wearing black sportswear, shorts and a tight tank top, white high socks and expensive sneakers, Selene with long straight hair she had just dyed. It was Selene but it was new, and her skin was still so pale, it had lost its sun-kissed gold hints as if the colours in her had died out and faded away in ultra space. But there was bright pink on her clothes and matte burgundy on her lips and she was stunning.

It was Selene but a Selene who came from ultra space, and that aery physical appearance was enhanced by the dancing coloured lights of the festival that emphasised this remote and alien beauty she had at the moment. Someone had put tropical flowers around her neck and behind her right ear, confirming her belonging to this soil, to this community but also highlighting her potential goddess nature. A goddess of the ancient tribal times, ageless and eternal. And dangerous, somehow.

Gladion has been holding her wrist and she had plunged her fiery chestnut eyes in his and maybe Ilima felt that he could not interrupt and postpone that kind of moment when a tension arises, but it is not negative nor positive, it just is, it exists but it is invisible and it can only be felt. A moment of suspension in time, of hesitation when you do not know what to do nor say because it cannot be translated by actions and words. Selene smiled at the blonde but he could not really interpret it, thus it was not meant to bring him down, it just paused the moment and maybe they would carry that tension somewhere else where it could explode, because Gladion could not afford to let his pride escape him any longer and she knew that perfectly. Two seconds left aside, the result of long hour’s wait, hours that became days and days became months.

“You seem fine, I mean -”

Her eyes were apologising and they were grateful too.

“Yeah, I don’t know, maybe because I’m getting used to it. But I’d lost my balance again and everything. I don’t belong up there.”

“Somehow, believe me, you do.”

You’re an ethereal creature and I love you and I need you and you’re my religion, but that he would never voice it out loud because no one needed to know that, even Selene herself because if she wanted to know, she could just read it in his eyes or anyhow – he did not wanted to know. Maybe these feelings of his were meant to remain suspended in time too, and he did not know why but he liked it like that. It felt much more like Selene, now. 

Hau and Elio greeted her and that was enough for an explosion, embracing and hugging her as if to prevent her to vanish away once again – and they all knew that she would anyway – and that was sufficient for Gladion because he was not really the actor type but more the spectator and he was fine with it. Selene was meant to be adored and contemplated, the sole prospect of him kissing her or something like that felt surrealistic, it was not right – it did not felt right.

He did not felt right and yet, after a few drinks and her taking a colourful pill and the four of them lying on the sand of another beach where they were not a soul to be seen but theirs, it might have felt fine and accurate. Selene was playing with the sand, appreciating the touch of it and its soft coldness despite the warm atmosphere and the almost non-existent sea breeze. And that sand raining between her fingers and gently stroking her skin felt hyperreal and she had missed that feeling a lot, that feeling of familiarity and belonging. 

Hau’s Raichu sent them drops from the sea as it was playing with Gladion’s Silvally, and that felt real too. They laughed and Hau could not help but jump to run after his Pokemon and give him the appropriate punishment, that is to say throw water at its face and mocking it. Elio took a photograph of the scene but it was blurry because his senses were not as clear as they were two hours ago, and it was 4 am again. He decided to join the electric young man because it sounded fun and Selene was too stoned anyway. 

Selene looked at the stars because she could not do anything else in that position, looking like a washed-up Staryu on the clear sand, her now wet hair mingled with algae and sand. She seemed as hypnotised and absorbed by that sky she was discovering and exploring, and right here and right now it felt nothing more than an immensity that it was impossible to go to because it was too remote and still oh she had to, she needed to - 

“Hey don’t stay with that seaweed things in your hair, it’s gross”, Gladion interrupted her stream of thoughts and removed the dark green and dark red and dark blue algae ornamenting her locks. “Anyway, why are you taking those pills again, you’re still frag-”

She did not let him finish, her eyes still glued to the infiniteness of the starry night-sky.

“Anyway, why are you still taking care of me when I’m such shipwrecked like that.”

“Why do you want a reason for something that doesn’t need one.”

“Why doesn’t it need a reason.”

Gladion sighed, playing with his fingers as leaning on his elbow and looking away from Selene’s eyes confused in the darkness of the canopy of heaven

“Yeah, that’s right, why oh why.”

She laughed with a crystalline laugh and it felt so serene.

“Pathetic, yeah”, she said.

She turned over and shifted her weight on her elbows and Gladion’s eyes had total access to the sight of the base of her chest, and the poor boy felt guilty for that. The glint in her expression was obnoxiously mocking and teasing but she was searching deeper, she wanted to find out and she wanted him to voice and pronounce these words he never wanted to say. This was Selene, it felt more like Selene and it was such a shame that he needed her to be on drugs and with her hair damp from a midnight bath in the crystal clear ocean surrounding Alola’s islands to be like that. Her lips were pale, maybe she was cold but her boiling intoxicated blood prevented her from realising it or it might only be the light of the moon. 

And now let go, let go, it’s okay, it’s alright, it feels right – explode.

He kissed her and it felt strange but not in the wrong way because it was just because her lips tasted like salt because she was dancing in the gentle waves around half an hour ago, but maybe it was marine salt or the residues of another mineral from ultra space, from another dimension – the kind of ores that were quietly glowing in the darkness of some remote cave, or of some dimension the sun could not reach. But her lips were soft and not really cold, it was just flesh and it did not mean anything, the act in itself was not that significant.

What meant more than everything was the connexion, and the certainty that Selene was here on Earth, that she was matter and life, that her heart was still beating and her blood circulating and her synapses working. That she was able to break this shell built by the aftermath of the diving in ultra space and the company of a legendary Ultra Beast or whatever that could be. The security that she was not as remote and dissociated as she could seem, that she was just human after all. An ethereal one, a legendary one, but the way she was welcoming that contact only showed that she had chosen him somehow so what guilt was doing here after all.

And oh they could well root here if that meant she was not to fly away again until she would never come back again and get lost for ever, grasped by a portal leading to an endless mortal fight against the most dreadful and gigantic Ultra Beast in the whole galaxy. 

She collapsed and Gladion managed to catch her before she abruptly fell down on the cold sand.

“What the fuck you did to her, man”, the blonde heard Hau’s voice from behind his back and he dared to glance behind his shoulder to see his friend standing composedly, all soaked and the feet being caressed by the flux of the lazy waves. 

Elio did not say anything, he just nodded to him and that was a small kind of contract and that was written “take care of her and of yourself too” on it, but Gladion already did that many times before so he knew how to proceed and Elio just recognised that fact.

“Edgy but fluff-ball baby prince Gladion had met again with his warrior princess who didn’t die on the battlefront, and he has now to look after her cos she’s wounded and exhausted. How cute, I’m so jealous. Now you have no reason to be depressed, next time you dance, I don’t give a -”

“I definitely ain’t to dance.”

For Gladion was more a spectator than an actor, and dancing meant acting. And it was not his part down here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am actually in quarantine in a country that is not even mine so writing seems to be a good way to kill my time.


End file.
